Windfall
by bcbdrums
Summary: He was frozen in fear as the flaming wreckage of the jet came sliding over the edge of the cliff and began plummeting toward them, only the weak grasp of his fingertips on the cliff face between him and the the flaming ball of death. But more horrifying was the scrape of a metal wing against the rock as the wreck slid straight toward his partner above him. "Shego!" he screamed.


**_A/N: Inspired by this fanart, here (remove spaces and deliberate typo): benji-the-art-blog. tumblr. kom/ image/188176290034 And prodded into existence by wolfofsheep. XD I'm glad she did, this was tons of fun. Enjoy the Drakgo! _**

**_(This has not been proofread; it was written in two rapid sessions when I had time in the last 36 hours. Forgive weird writing errors.)_**

* * *

"Shego!" Drakken called hoarsely, staring through the driving snow at his partner climbing above him. "It's too dangerous! We have to go back!"

His voice was lost on the wind as she continued to climb the sheer cliff face, the orange glow above assuring them of their prize.

The jetliner had crashed only one hour ago and Global Justice had dispatched them to the Andes to find those who had been lost. The blizzard drowned out the roar of flames above them as they attempted to scale the cliff, and the wind continued to knock Drakken against the harsh glacial ice.

"Shego!" he called again, but his partner didn't hear him. Ever the stubborn one, she was making ground and approaching the top of the cliff where they would find the burning wreckage. And hopefully, survivors.

He focused on getting his freezing fingers around the handholds in the rock as the snow beat against his face, and wondered again how he had ended up on field missions almost as often as he did laboratory research.

_'Because a certain someone picked you of all people to be her partner,'_ he reminded himself, grinding his teeth in frustration.

He was thrilled to be with her, really. But her missions were always dangerous. More dangerous than anything they had tried as villains, the more he thought about it. He wouldn't have survived even the first one if not for her constantly watching his back. In fact, he survived _most_ of them because she was watching his back.

"Why me..." he muttered as he took another burning step upwards, his aged joints protesting against the cold.

A sudden shout of alarm drew his gaze upward, and he gasped as the orange glow intensified and a strange rumbling joined the hiss of the winds. Moments later, the flaming wreckage of the jet came sliding over the edge of the cliff and began plummeting toward them, a plume of black smoke rising behind it and blotting out the blinding white of the snow.

He was frozen in fear, watching the flaming object falling closer and closer with nothing between it and him but the weak grasp of his fingertips on the face of the cliff. He would have stayed like that but for the even more horrifying sight that suddenly met his eyes. As the flaming plane twisted and spun through its fall, one of the broken wings scraped against the cliff-side and right toward his partner.

"Shegoooo!" he cried desperately as the massive object hit her and sent her spinning off the cliff, looking like nothing more than a splinter as she fell after the burning hulk.

The plane crashed into the lower ridge below in a glorious explosion, wicked plumes of fire rising up into the snow-laden skies as the remaining jet fuel ignited, replaced mere moments later by the black billowing herald of death. It was into this dark infinity that Shego's small form disappeared.

"No!" Drakken bit out, fairly sliding down the mountain in his haste to reach her. His cheek scraped against the icy stone, but he barely noticed the pain nor the hot tears that had pooled in his eyes.

She couldn't possibly have survived.

"No, no, no, no, no," he continued muttering as his feet hit sank into the snow as the mountain's grade decreased. He tumbled the rest of the way down until the snow stopped his momentum, and then he was on his feet, pushing through the barrier of cold toward the dark heat.

No one could have survived that crash. And no one could have survived a fall like that, either.

He ran until he was so close that the roar of flames drowned out the wail of the wind.

"Shegooo!" he screamed at the churning smoke and flame, willing it to yield her to him. They hadn't survived nearly five years of life-threatening experiences together, including a genuine alien invasion, just to be torn apart by bad luck.

The wind was blowing the smoke into his face. He lowered his head and ran around to the side of the wreck that was against the wind. From there he could see more of the twisted metal, completely unrecognizable from what it had formerly been.

"Shego!" he called again, his voice hoarse from the intrusion of the carbons into his lungs combined with the below-zero air he was breathing.

The only answer was the roar of the flames and the whistle of the wind. Tears filled his eyes anew as he fell back and sat in the snowdrift, arms laying limply in the icy cushions at his sides.

How had this happened? How had a routine rescue mission turned into his greatest nightmare?

He rubbed his dripping nose, already raw from the cold, and wondered what he should do next. Should he just...go back to camp? Should he climb the cliff and continue the mission, to see if there had indeed been any survivors of the crash? Should he wait for the flames to stop and look...for her body?

He blinked away the tears and stood back up. Maybe he should just run head-long into the fire and let it kill the little bit that was left of him. Yes...that seemed like a good plan.

He lifted his eyes to the wreckage again, and... He gasped. A womanly figure was emerging from the smoke, walking slowly but surely toward him.

"Shego!" he cried, rushing toward her. As he got closer he saw the scorch marks that had ruined her winter clothing. Her eyes were tightly closed and her gait was irregular and unnaturally slow. "Shego!" he called again as he finally reached her.

She fell into his open arms, knocking him down into the deep snow again. Her eyes remained closed as he gathered her into his lap, and he recoiled at the sulfurous smell of burnt hair.

"Are you all right?"

"What...do you think?" she said, her voice sounding in a choked whisper, but having lost none of its bite.

"Where are you hurt?"

She finally opened one eye and peered up at him from where her cheek lay against his, her eyebrow quirking in annoyance.

"Too many places to count."

"We have to get you out of here!" he said, making to rise.

"Nope," she said through a cough, her burned glove weakly grasping at the front of his coat. "This is as far as I go."

"But your injuries could be life-threatening!"

"Yeah. So is a blizzard."

He lifted his face from where he had pressed it against hers and peered around them, beyond the smoking mass in front of him. It was a white-out, so bad that he couldn't even see the mountain on the other side of the wreck where they had been climbing before.

"I see your point."

"Can't see _anything_..."

Drakken took as deep a breath as he could in the cold. "Right... Right."

He released his tight hold on Shego to take off his backpack and began pulling out survival gear. Chemical heat packs, which he activated and dropped on the snow in front of them; their GPS locator, which he turned on; and his thermal blanket, battery-powered of course. He swept the blanket around them both and tucked it under them as best he could in the deepening snow. The heat packs would melt some of it and make it easier to stay warm, but sitting in a drift certainly wasn't helping. At least his GJ-issue clothing was intact and keeping him reasonably warm.

He looked down at her singed clothing again. There was no way she was warm...except perhaps in the places she was burned.

He gingerly pulled her closer to him, ignoring the complaint of his joints as he positioned her in a way he thought would keep her the most warm and where he could hold the blanket fully around them. She barely moved, letting him do all the work, only nestling her head against his neck when he had finally settled them.

It was at that moment that Drakken realized it was the closest he had ever been to her. And he had brought her close to him without even a thought.

A brief panic struck him that she might blast him for his seeming effrontery, but...she was snuggled into him as tightly as could be.

_'Well, of course she is,'_ he thought, thinking of her injuries and the cold. It was only logical.

But still... He swallowed nervously as feelings he had long-buried began to poke and prod at his carefully crafted bastions.

They had never truly defined what the two of them were to each other. Months of arguing after the alien invasion had led to their mutual and begrudged humbling, admitting that whether for evil or good they wanted to be together.

_"Why change it up now?"_ she had said casually. Though he secretly hoped that she didn't want to leave him as much as he didn't want to leave her.

The Global Justice job had been the easiest way out of their predicament and left them able to continue on without defining themselves and keep things basically as they had always been. He was a researcher, and Shego a field agent. But when she was told she needed a partner she insisted that it be him.

'Partner' worked very well for the both of them, and he'd found himself relaxing more and more as the months went on, to the point that he had stopped jumping every time a GJ superior questioned his work. Shego was much the same, though she frowned more and was even more sarcastic than her usual around the other GJ employees. But when the two of them were alone on missions, he noticed she smiled more easily and seemed almost relaxed.

It had been his idea to accept the offer from GJ. He knew she wanted to stay in villainy, even after their pardon from the UN. But he felt the siren call of the life he had dreamed of as a young man and wanted to give it a try.

That was where the arguments had started, and where they both ended up being forced to admit that they didn't want to go on without the other. And due to GJ's assignment of him as her 'partner' they hadn't needed to discuss their association since.

He was also fine with that. Being with her at all was better than being without her. So he shut down the part of himself that would look at her and marvel at her beauty and take joy in her rare laughs. He knew there was no way she could ever feel anything like that for him, so there was no point in exploring it. He reminded himself frequently of his mantra, that to be with her at all was better than _not_ being with her.

But holding her in his arms now, he couldn't simply push down his feelings. Maybe it was the adrenaline from the crash and finding her alive. Maybe it was because she was injured, perhaps seriously. But he found himself wanting desperately to look into her eyes and tell her how much he loved her.

That would never do.

He made sure the blanket was covering her up to her eyes, but left enough space for her to breathe. This left his whole head uncovered and beaten by the driving snow, but he could warm up later. Shego's survival was the priority now.

The smell of burnt hair assaulted him again and he fought the feeling of nausea it brought and hoped the wind would shift soon. He realized then that in the brief time since they had hunkered down, the height of the drift they were in had risen and fresh snow was piling up against the thermal blanket and melting into ice from its electric heat.

He looked up again and realized he almost couldn't see the plane, though he could still hear and see the flames. The blizzard was getting worse. He hoped any crash survivors had a place to shelter atop the cliff. There certainly wouldn't be any getting to them now.

As the minutes passed he heard Shego's breathing even out and slow. He looked down at her when it suddenly occurred to him that she shouldn't be sleeping; she might have a concussion.

"Shego?"

"Mm?"

"Ah...you're awake. Good."

"Mm."

He could barely see her face beneath the blanket and the covering made by her wind-blown hair. After a moment he rested his frozen cheek atop her snow-covered head. When the snow melted, it would actually be warmer than just leaving his face for the winds to chafe.

Another worry suddenly occurred to him.

"Shego?"

"Mm?"

"You're not hypothermic, are you?"

"No."

"Ah. Good."

"And I don't have a concussion. So if I fall asleep...it's fine," she said, running out of breath at the end.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

As the snow continued to mount around them, he thought that sleep might not be a bad plan. The heat from the burning plane had waned and he remembered the weather report promising nothing good, which was why they had been dispatched so quickly when news of the crash came in the first place.

"I hope...any survivors are okay," he mused.

"Stop talking now."

"Right. Yes."

Eventually the menacing howl and whip of the wind became as nonthreatening as a pinwheel as time passed beyond his ability to count. He had given up attempting to stop his teeth chattering and simply let his body's natural defenses against cold take over.

Shego was warm against his chest, but a painful weight on his lap. He passed the time focusing on turning his face to rest each of his cheeks on her head in turn, taking advantage of her heat and protecting her head from the snow at the same time. He had counted sixteen turns for each cheek when he noticed her breathing had slowed even further. He wondered if she was asleep, but he didn't dare speak again after she had told him not to.

The battery in the thermal blanket had died ages ago, and he realized with dismay that the chemical packs were wearing off too. They had been in the snow for at least two hours. Before long, they would only have each other as defense against the elements.

All at once he realized the wind wasn't as harsh anymore. He opened his eyes, which had been closed to the blizzard's fury, and peered around them. Snow still fell in large flakes, like a thick curtain of rose petals, growing the pile around them. The drift was nearly up to their shoulders now.

He realized too that he couldn't hear the fire anymore, and he squinted through the snow in the direction he knew the wreckage lie. But the glow and the smoke were also gone, replaced by the disorienting white veil. He supposed the blizzard had put the fire out, as strong as it had been.

He peered down at his partner again, motionless but for the gentle rise and fall of her chest with her breaths that he felt against his own chest more than he saw. The edges of her hair were peppered with the large clusters of white snowflakes, making it look like she wore a wreath of them on her head. He slowly pulled one gloved hand out from the safety of the blanket to begin brushing the flakes off; when they melted they would wet her hair and make her even colder.

Her face, so pale and still, made her seem more beautiful to him than ever. Moving without a thought, he brought his face down and kissed one cluster of flakes off of her hairline.

Reality struck him as her eyes flew open and her chin jerked up toward his face—the first movement she had made in hours.

Definitely not sleeping.

He pulled back instinctively, holding his breath in fear as his wide-eyes and clenched jaw pleaded for forgiveness. But she didn't look angry. In fact...he couldn't read her expression. Her eyes were wide and clearly she was startled, but any further emotion she may have felt was unreadable on her face.

"I...s-sorry. I..." he stammered, teeth chattering with each word.

She drew in a breath through her lips and held it. His anxiety gave way to confusion as he watched her, seeming to study him.

"Sh-Shego?" he ventured nervously.

She exhaled softly, her breath warm on his face. "Do that again."

"...What?"

She didn't answer, for she had already closed her eyes and nestled back into her spot against his neck. He stared at her dark head for a long moment until even more snowflakes had collected at her hairline.

Taking a nervous breath, he brushed her hair back again and pressed his lips against one of the white flakes on her skin.

"Hmm..." she softly hummed in satisfaction. He blinked in surprise. "Again."

He repeated the action, melting another snowflake with his lips.

"Again..."

He hesitated, unsure. But gently, slowly, he began placing kisses all along her hairline until there were no snowflakes left. When he pulled back, thinking the task complete, her brow furrowed and she made a soft sound of annoyance. He resumed his attentions immediately, but having no more snowflakes to remove he kissed her cold skin, working lower until he found the tinier snowflakes on her eyebrows.

His lips were numb from the cold so he couldn't really feel anything, but his heart was racing, heating him from within.

She couldn't possibly reciprocate his feelings...could she?

He stopped again, reaching a point of no return in his mind. To kiss her any lower than her forehead would be far too intimate and potentially ruin their partnership if her feelings weren't the same as his. They _couldn't_ be.

She opened her eyes and tilted her head up toward his when he didn't kiss her again. He still held his breath, not daring to make a move she wouldn't approve of. Her gaze was searching as her eyes first looked into his, and then across his face.

"You're covered in snow," she said, one gloved hand snaking out of the safety of the blanket and reaching up past his face. He gasped as suddenly a rain of snow fell down around his head as she ran her hand back and forth over his hair. "You okay?"

He blinked the snow out of his eyes and looked down into her searching face again. "Yes..." he said, doing a quick mental run-over of his systems. He could still move and feel all of his toes. He might have been tired but for the adrenaline still in him from the need to protect her.

Her hand that had brushed his hair slid down to rest on his cheek. His lips parted in surprise and focused on her face again. Her eyes were still searching, almost pleading as she stared up at him.

He swallowed slowly. With a gentle tug she brought his face down toward hers until their lips met. Cold and chapped, his weather-beaten lips couldn't feel hers, but the kiss she had drawn him into sent a warmth through his heart like he had never felt. It bubbled into each of his extremities like a hot spring, nearly making him forget about the frozen desert they were still trapped in. As the touch lingered, he found his hands sliding up her arms to grip her shoulders and pull her closer to him.

When she released him and he pulled back, her eyes were even more pleading than before. His heart thudded heavily in his chest. The warmth her touch had given him was still bubbling up, past his chest and his neck, finding its way to his smile and finally into his voice.

"I love you!" he blurted out. Then he choked on the icy air as he realized what he'd done, his eyes widening in fright.

She stared at him in shock. Hot tears began stinging his eyes as he looked down at her, each breath coming more quickly than the last. How could he have said that? Now everything was ruined!

"I...I... Shego, I'm sorry, I... I'm sorry," he said, hanging his head in shame. Ordinarily his mind would be racing to come up with a plan to get him out of his predicament, but he had no way out this time, literally or metaphorically. His own recklessness had finished him again.

The warmth that had caused his outburst was seeping away as cold wrapped itself around him again, until suddenly a second gloved hand joined the first on his other cheek. Wide-eyed, he slowly raised his head and looked down into her expressive eyes. They held no anger like he had expected, but instead...pity? Or was it...tenderness...

"Drakken," she said softly, a smile coming into her eyes as she cupped his face and brought it down toward hers again. "What took you so long?"

His jaw slackened in amazement. "You...you mean...?"

Her answer was another kiss, and this time he felt the warmth deep within his soul. He wrapped his arms tightly around her shoulders as hers hooked around his neck, bringing her closer to him. The blanket fell from their shoulders without him holding it up, and they broke apart at the sudden shock of cold. He quickly gathered it back up and brushed away the snowflakes that had fallen on her.

"Sorry," he said quickly as they huddled back down, but this time instead of resting against his neck she was smiling up at him, almost relieved.

"I was about ready to give up," she said with a shy laugh.

He wanted to frown, but found himself too overjoyed to do so. He settled for teasing with words instead.

"You could have always said something."

"Me, make a love-declaration like that?" she said with a smirk. Drakken felt the burn of blood in his cheeks as he blushed. "Nope, nuh-uh. This ship was yours to steer."

Still gripping the blanket, Drakken set his hands on her shoulders and began rubbing them gently. "I...can't believe you love _me_. You...do, don't you?"

She nestled her face into his neck again. "Believe it."

_"Dr. Drakken...!"_

They both turned their heads toward the sound of the distant call. Peering through the snow, they watched as dark shapes began to form amid the white. After a moment the shapes got closer and began looking like humans. And a moment later they began looking like their squad mates from the GJ camp.

Drakken shifted his stiff legs beneath her and she slowly began unfolding from her position on his lap.

"Time to get you to a hospital... Partner?"

"Mm, 'partner' is good... But I like the sound of 'wife' a lot better," she said as she slowly rose, holding his shoulders tightly for balance.

He shifted her weight to his hands as he carefully stood, staring at her incredulously. As soon as he was up she leaned against him heavily, and her burned and ash-streaked clothing reminded him of the seriousness of where they were. Yet her words rang in his ears like a carillon.

"'Wife'?"

"What do you say, Dr. D.?" Her chapped lips were smirking, but her eyes were full of delight.

He wrapped the blanket around them as they waited for their rescue to arrive, snowflakes covering their heads again. "I say... Can we make it a summer wedding?"

Shego laughed.

-  
fin.


End file.
